Gaming

IndieGoGo Campaign Saves Near-Death Gaming Franchise

How do you save a game franchise from dying? The developers at Los Angeles-based Lab Zero Games determined the only way to keep its game growing was to harness the power of fans.

In the face of brutal challenges, Lab Zero Games has won the power to continue its work on its 2012 tournament-grade 2D fighting game Skullgirls. A potent mix of Japanese anime and 1940s Old Hollywood noir, the independent 2D fighter immediately endeared itself to fans with its high-definition looks and customizable combos.

And finally, after nearly a year in suspended animation, the game will finally come alive again — thanks to the dedication of its fans and the rousing success of an ongoing IndieGoGo campaign to bring more action into the Skullgirls universe.

“It's such a weird situation, and we had no expectation that it would even work,” says Peter Bartholow, CEO of Lab Zero Games.

Mashable spoke with Bartholow on Skullgirls’ death and fan-led rebirth — and the exciting things fans will get to see in a few short months.

Skullgirls Cut Short

The production of Skullgirls happened serendipitously. Well-known competitive fighting gamer Mike “Mike Z” Zaimont had been working on a tournament-grade fighting engine by himself, and illustrator Alex “o_8” Ahad began development on the world that would become Skullgirls. Together, the two brought the project to game development company Reverge Labs in 2010, then to publishers Autumn Games and Konami to release a tournament fighting game for tournament fighting enthusiasts.

Set in the mysterious, steampunk-influenced world of Canopy Kingdom, Skullgirls boasts an all-female cast — each one fighting her way to get her hands on the mysterious Skull Heart, which will grant any wish. The game evokes a lot of 2D fighting classics, such as Street Fighter, but remains challenging enough to keep even the most experienced gamers on their toes.

Immediately after the game was released in April 2012 on the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade, the Skullgirls team began teasing even more content for the game: new voice packs, color palettes and even DLC characters with their own story modes and stages. However, a few months later, Autumn Games was slapped with a series of lawsuits related to a separate game property — Def Jam Rapstar — and found itself interminably broke.

“The lawsuit has gummed up everything related to Autumn's funding,” Bartholow explains. “They had to lay off the core team.”

After months out of the job, the team reformed, intent on picking up the franchise where they left off. They had the blessing from Autumn to continue creating new content for the franchise (and would get the ability to publish their work) — but they'd have to do it with a stripped-down budget with very little wiggle room.

Fan Resurrection

Bartholow says the ultimate push to crowdfunding came after a promising round of funding the team raised in an attempt to nab the eighth and final slot at international fighting tournament EVO 2013. Lab Zero Games started its own stream on TwitchTV and held a large-scale donation drive, raising more than $78,000 for breast cancer research and reaching second place overall.

Bolstered by the overwhelming support, the team decided to bite the bullet and try an IndieGoGo fundraiser for the game, to produce the first (and partially completed) DLC character, which the team announced after the drive. The undead opera singer named Squigly has a powerful singing voice and a parasitic demon, Leviathan, living within her.

“We felt pretty okay that we would be able to fund her in 30 days,” Bartholow says.

What the team didn’t expect was such a major response: In just 24 hours, fans fully funded the $150,000 needed to produce Squigly. As of this writing, the campaign has just under two weeks left to go and has raised over $397,000 — enough to produce Skullgirls’ first male character, Big Band.

The campaign is now staring down the barrel of another major reach goal: a Mystery DLC character from the Skullgirls universe that will be produced based on fan vote. Bartholow says that the team was shocked by the response, but couldn’t deny that the fans wanted to see success.

“We had no expectation to fund it in 24 hours,” he says. “It blows us away that we'll be funding Big Band.”

The Future of The Canopy Kingdom

With ample time left to go in the campaign, the Lab Zero Games team has already pushed full steam ahead with Squigly, and will fund Big Band later in the fall. Those eager to get their hands on Squigly before the projected summer release date will have the opportunity to do so during the beta test of Skullgirls on PC — one of the tiered rewards in the game’s campaign.

“Play testing is usually done in Japan in secrecy, and American players outside of that group have never gotten to get that experience,” Bartholow says. “This time, they’ll be able to send us feedback.”

In addition to working on the DLC, Bartholow says that Lab Zero games is hoping to sell new properties to publishers in the meantime and establish itself as a development company. And, though they didn’t win the fundraiser, Lab Zero Games’ efforts resulted in a featured Skullgirls exhibition tournament at EVO 2013 in July.

As for Skullgirls 2, which has gained buzz as the campaign steadily releases concept art of the many characters Ahad has stored up over the years, Bartholow says that the team hopes the wave of popularity from the game’s resurrection, the game’s current success in Japan and the subsequent PC sales later this year will carry the ideas to fruition.

Whatever happens, Bartholow says it couldn’t be done without the support of gamers.

“I just want to thank all of our fans for supporting us.”

Do you think second-chance funding could be viable for many game franchises beyond Skullgirls? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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